December 8, 2014

While the nation’s media debates whether jaywalking and selling cigarettes should be capital offenses with the police acting as judge, jury, and executioner, 411 members of the U.S. House of Representatives quietly passed a bill that, if approved by the same large percentage of the Senate, can lead the United States into war with Russia. Five Republicans and five Democrats voted against H. Res. 758 “strongly condemning the actions of the Russian Federation, under President Vladimir Putin, which has carried out a policy of aggression against neighboring countries aimed at political and economic domination.”

This move toward war proves that the House can act quickly if it wishes: the resolution was introduced on November 18, went to committee, and passed on December 4—just 16 days from beginning to end. Yet House members have done nothing about funding anti-ISIL programs and waited to take up the budget to keep the government running until tomorrow—just two days before their lights go out and they leave town. The House wants to start wars, not pay for them.

Those who believe that resolutions are harmless should look back what happened after the Iraq Liberation Act in 1998 calling for regime change. George W. Bush used this act as support for the congressional Authorization for Use of Military Force against Iraq in October 2002. Equally frightening is the remarkable lack of media attention to a vote that can lead to the downfall of the entire world.

With no proof, the resolution accuses Russia of an invasion of Ukraine and condemns Russia’s violation of Ukrainian sovereignty. While the U.S. was complaining about Russia’s violation of Ukrainian sovereignty, the U.S. participated in the overthrow in the country’s elected government last February, shown by the $5 billion that the U.S. spent on regime change in Ukraine. The accusation in the resolution that people in east Ukraine held “fraudulent and illegal elections” follows the U.S. pattern of complaining about elections in any country when the U.S. government doesn’t get its desired results. The resolution also urges the government in Kiev to resume military operations against the eastern regions that seek independence.

According to the resolution, the Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was brought down by a missile “fired by Russian-backed separatist forces in eastern Ukraine.” The final report regarding the crash isn’t due for release until next year, and the preliminary report does not state that a missile brought down the plane. The report also fails to blame anyone.

Another complaint in the resolution is that Russia sold arms to Assad government in Syria. The weapons were sent to fight ISIL, considered to be the U.S. enemy. At the same time, the United States inadvertently provided weapons to ISIL by supplying them to Syrian rebels.

The statement that Russia invaded the Republic of Georgia in 2008 is also untrue. The European Union determined that Georgia “started an unjustified war” against Russia, not vice versa.

The resolution condemns Russia for its economic sanctions, “coercive economic measures,” against Ukraine, the exact action that the U.S. took against Russia.

Another part of the resolution is a complaint of Russia’s attacks on U.S. computer networks and “illicitly acquiring information” about the U.S. government. As the Edward Snowden leaks show, the U.S. has done massive spying on the rest of the world, even taping German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s cell phone. In addition, other countries such as China hack into U.S. computer systems, but thus far the House has not passed any resolutions to attack that county.

About the accusation that Russian’s state-funded media is to “distort public opinion,” the U.S. government spends billions of dollars to finance and sponsor media such outlets Voice of America and RFE/RL, as well as to subsidize “independent” media in countless counties overseas.

The resolution supports Ukrainian President Poroshenko in re-starting his military assault on the independence-seeking eastern provinces, urging the “disarming of separatist and paramilitary forces in eastern Ukraine.” The House bill calls for the U.S. president to “provide the government of Ukraine with lethal and non-lethal defense articles, services, and training required to effectively defend its territory and sovereignty.” According to International Law, sending military hardware and/or personnel across and into a sovereign country with the purpose of killing is an act of war.

In Ukraine, the United States planned and funded a Neo-Nazi coup that led to the overthrow of a democratically-elected government. The U.S. supported openly fascist, anti-Semitic oligarchs to take over the Ukrainian government. This week Natalie Jaresko, a former U.S. State Department officer, received Ukrainian citizenship and, at the same time, became the country’s new Finance Minister. She had headed a U.S. government-funded investment project for Ukraine that involved substantial insider dealings, including $1 million-plus fees to a management company that she also controlled.

In its rationale for the demands in H.Res. 758, the 411 House members voting in favor of aggression against Russia have demonstrated a high level of hypocrisy.

U.S. and British intelligence have used Ukranian Neo-Nazis against the Soviet Union since the end of World War II.

President George H.W. Bush and German chancellor Helmut Kohl in essence defrauded Mikhail Gorbachev in expanding NATO to the Russian borders.

The United States destabilized Ukraine, Georgia, Serbia, and other countries formed from the Soviet Union in a pattern of color revolutions. The U.S. wants access to Ukraine’s rich store of oil and gas, just as it wants the energy resources in the Middle East.

For the past century, the United States has created a phenomenal number of imperialist coups around the world—Latin America, the Middle East, Southern Africa, etc. The U.S. has provided support to terrorist and paramilitary organizations as well as assistance to authoritarian regimes that use terror as a tool of repression. At this time, the U.S. foreign policy is to kill thousands of innocent civilians with drones. It is impossible for this country to pretend to take the high road in such a resolution as H.R. 758. The people who voted for this resolution should be embarrassed by their actions.

A provision of the resolution could force NATO to wage war if the United States chooses this option. If the Senate passes H. Res. 758, the president has a green light for war on Russia without further congressional approval. Infrastructure in the United States is rapidly crumbling, and 50 million people live in poverty partly because of the trillions of dollars spent on just the Middle East wars during the 21st century. The resolution extends that travesty to a possibility of World War III, this time with nuclear attacks, no safety provisions of the past Cold War, and no holds barred. The conservative hawks are determined to attack, a situation that could annihilate the planet before climate change has a chance to destroy all of us.